Today, JAX London's Pre-Conference Day is under way. It features tutorials and also Agile Day. If you look at the JAX Conference Overview[6], you see that it has a somewhat unusual structure with respect to schedule. While the conference runs for three days, the schedule is structured into "days" named after individual topics. For example, there's Agile Day, Java EE Day, Systems Integration Day, Spring Day, ... Called Special Days[7] by the conference organizers, these:

"will show important themes in an comprehensive sense. Moderated by an expert of the respective theme, they present in many sessions comprehensive knowledge and a perfect place to exchange your experiences."

What's nice about this is that it facilitates attending the conference for fewer than all three days, if your primary interest is localized to a specific topic area. And, true to form, the JAX pricing structure[8] lets you take advantage of the schedule, by letting you purchase a one-day, two-day, or full three-day registration. In other words, you purchase only the specific conference days you're interested in. That can be a real money saver. I hope other conferences will take note.

Of course, you can follow JAX London as it happens on Twitter, via @jaxlondon[9] or a search for the #jaxlondon[10] tag. As I write this (20:30 GMT):

Arun Gupta[11] has just tweeted about the excellent JAX London reception and speakers dinner;

Regarding today's sessions, @akesterton[12] says he "particularly liked the sky.com one on agile development (for small co-located teams)"; and

As I've said before, Twitter isn't my favorite method for following conferences remotely -- but I'll take it in the absence of something better. I think in the 'olden days' (i.e., pre-Twitter), when people would write somewhat organized blog posts during and following a session or a day at a conference, it was easier for a remote observer to get a feel for the really significant information that was being presented.

Still, I intend to use Twitter substantially this week, and next week, while also searching for blog posts, as I follow what Alexis pretty aptly is calling "Java month around the world"[2].

java.net Weblogs

Since my last blog post[14], a couple interesting new java.net blogs have been posted by others: